Took Practice CFA Today

2012Cadet

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It was a real eye opener and showed just how out of shape I was and how bad I need to improve. Disregarding the BBall Throw and Mile (I know...miserable fails) did I do okay on the rest for a first time with having never practicing doing it before? (I know, I should have...and will now start doing so.)

BBall Throw-38' (WTF? I know)
Pull-ups-5
Shuttle Run-9.4
Crunches-65
Push-Ups-46
Mile-10 min (WTF? I know)

My tip for anyone who has never practiced or done the CFA yet and will...the cumulative effect is big (emphasis) and practice, practice, practice...!
 
From what I've read, basketball throw is all about technique and practice. You'll grow a lot and get a lot of strength over the next two years, and if you do a search of these forums, you'll get a lot of tips that may help you. If you go to summer seminar, they'll give you a lot of hands on practice and tips too. But as you said, for nearly all of these, the best thing to do is practice.

When my son applied to summer seminar last December, he couldn't do a single pullup. He started practicing at home (just bought the $20 pullup bar to put in his room) and by the time he went, he did 9. After working out a bit more at home, when he took it for real he got 10. If you're starting from 5, you're way ahead of that.

Same for the pushups and situps. If you do them and practice, you'll build them slowly. He went from about 25 pushups to about 55. Situps were never a problem, but make sure you're doing them correctly. They are NOT full situps like we did back 25 year ago - your elbows only have to contact somewhere between your thigh and knee, not all the way up to your knee. He was probably doing about 70 at home, but when he went to SS and they showed him how to do them right (much easier), he easily maxed that each time he took them.

Shuttle run - again technique. You may need to do this a few times to get a good score. When my son took it at Navy SLS, he slipped each time he took it for real and got a poor score. Luckily it's one of the earlier events so if you're taking it with a PE teacher at your school, you could always redo it a different day if you just had a bad day at this. My son finally got it down to about 8.4 with practice.

Running - you know. You need to run. Only way that will improve. And as you saw, it's a killer after doing everything else. So you need to be able to run about 4 miles easily in order for that one mile to feel easy here. And then, if you go to USAFA SS, you'll STILL be dying just because of the altitude. When my son took it there he was more than a minute slower than anywhere else.

Just for reference, you want to shoot for at least the average scores. This link will give you info on those and technique/requirements if you haven't found it yet:

http://admissions.usma.edu/prospectus/CFA_Instructions05.pdf

However, just unofficially, my son knew kids at summer seminar who all compared scores, and they did tell them there (WP's) if they failed a section (these minimums aren't published officially anywhere). The other 4 scores you list were all passing there from people he knows (and of course you'll improve between now and then). The BB throw passing seemed to be 50-low (under 50 feet didn't pass). The mile seemed to be around 8 minutes. So you have some work to do there on those two, but again in 2 years, shouldn't be a problem if you do work!
 
If you go to summer seminar, they'll give you a lot of hands on practice and tips too.

I didn't get any practice or tips from SLS -- it was just "Hey, you're taking your CFA, you get three shots."
And I failed, epically. 30 feet the first time, (first time I'd ever tried it, too), slipped off my hand the second time, and I went over the line the third time. But surprisingly to me, I passed! (Keep in mind I am female). I ended up practicing a TON, and even though I never really got the hang of it, I did manage to get it up to 40 feet.

But anyway, with nearly two years to train, I'm sure you can manage to max out on at least the pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups, as well as get your run times faster and your throw farther. Good luck! :thumb:
 
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But anyway, with nearly two years to train, I'm sure you can manage to max out on at least the pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups, as well as get your run times faster and your throw farther. Good luck! :thumb:

Thanks for the encouragement...my goal now is for my official CFA to max out those main 3, run sub-7 mile, sub-9 shuttle run, and 70' BBall throw.
 
I didn't get any practice or tips from SLS -- it was just "Hey, you're taking your CFA, you get three shots."

My son did Navy, WP, and AF summer seminars. I think he got the most help and useful suggestions from Navy's. However, I figured it was just because he was there first, and he probably knew everything (or thought he did :wink: ) by the time he went to the other two.
 
Darn, I wish I could have gotten tips. But, it could also be who was there watching the test, as well, or even who his squad leader was that made the difference between getting help or not. I know there were a lot of difference between the squads depending on the squad leader. For example, other people in my platoon received a legitimate interview. My squad leader just asked me for my ACT scores, and observed how I acted over the week in lieu of the interview. But anyway, my point was just that future candidates shouldn't rely on any summer seminars to improve the basketball throw.
 
Good point! I just kind of assumed since he'd told me so many things he learned (I know tips on the situps, pullups, and BB throw), that they'd kind of all been instructed in them.

He also had a very, very minimal interview at SLS. Interesting since he said exactly what you did - they asked his ACT scores and basically said he'd done a good job so far that week. He'd been expecting and practiced before he went questions like he'd get for the nom interviews.

I think a lot of how much you get out of SS as a whole comes down to the squad/element leader. He thought his NASS leader was incredible, and has kept in touch with him since and is looking forward to seeing him again when he goes to CVW next month at Navy. He didn't think much of his WP leader and said she spent a lot of time griping about why she'd even bothered to come back (they were second class cadets there - about to "commit") and how much she hated it there. His AF element leader was more just okay - did the job but didn't really seem to connect as much with the kids. So I think definitely a true statement!
 
My goodness, that's awful. I'm guessing he wasn't in 1st platoon, then. All of the squad leaders there were wonderful. We even stayed in one of the auditoriums and they allowed us to ask any question of them we wished, and of any one of them in particular. The two female squad leaders also took us one night into a separate room for some West Point "girl talk." However, none of them wished to stay in contact with us, which is one thing I wish they had done. I guess they just viewed it as some kind of fraternization...
 
Interesting because my son does have contact with all of his SL's still - either on facebook or by email. Even the one from WP. Who he finds interesting that she doesn't have a single picture of herself in uniform on her facebook page (of a zillion pics). I'm sorry but I honestly have no idea of what platoon he was in. Were you in the first session though? I understood that one was a whole lot better - especially because of the weather. Second week didn't get to do a lot of the fun stuff at all - especially going to Buckner. He said they had a lot of squad time - which at Navy, his squad leader filled with all kinds of cool things. At WP, whenever they had squad time, his SL just sent them all back to their rooms to do what they wanted and ignored them. We were kind of bummed because his dad and I are WP grads and talked him into doing SLS (even though he wanted Navy and AF more) just to give him one more chance to see the place and maybe change his mind. And he came home far more convinced that it wasn't what he wanted. Glad to hear you had a good experience and it may just have been the particular people he was with and not WP as a whole these days! :wink:

OP - I'm sorry for diverting your thread here, but at least you're getting some insights into SLS too if you decide to go! :thumb:
 
just to give credit where credit is due: 5th platoon/week 1!!!

still have contact with my sargeants and learned SO much! I had such a long and involved interview, admissions said I didn't need another one - then came the LOA. honestly, best experience of my life
 
tip for bball throw:

it really is all in the technique. make sure you stretch your arm out really well... throw the bball to a partner or against a wall really hard like 15 times to get loose. when you actually do the toss, make sure your knees are shoulder-width!! if they're not, your balance will be off and you run the risk of falling over the line. also, try to aim kind of high... not ridiculously high, but enough to get a bit of an arc. again, practice really is the only way to figure out how high to aim (i could go into the physics of this, but i'll save you the bore). I improved my scores from 30 ft. to 50 ft. in just 3 weeks (I'm a girl). You've got plenty of time!
 
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